B.B. King to be laid to rest in Mississippi Delta

The Associated Press

Published
2:17 pm EDT, Wednesday, May 20, 2015

FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2007 file photo, B.B. King performs at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center, in Salisbury, Md. The body of blues legend B.B. King will be flown on Wednesday, May 20, 2015, to Memphis, Tennessee, the place where a young King won the nickname Beale Street Blues Boy, then will return to the Mississippi Delta where his life and career began. King, whose scorching guitar licks and heartfelt vocals made him the idol of generations of musicians and fans while earning him the nickname King of the Blues, died Thursday, May 14, at home in Las Vegas. He was 89. less

FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2007 file photo, B.B. King performs at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center, in Salisbury, Md. The body of blues legend B.B. King will be flown on Wednesday, May 20, 2015, to Memphis, ... more

Photo: (Matthew S. Gunby/The Daily Times Via AP) NO SALES

Photo: (Matthew S. Gunby/The Daily Times Via AP) NO SALES

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FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2007 file photo, B.B. King performs at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center, in Salisbury, Md. The body of blues legend B.B. King will be flown on Wednesday, May 20, 2015, to Memphis, Tennessee, the place where a young King won the nickname Beale Street Blues Boy, then will return to the Mississippi Delta where his life and career began. King, whose scorching guitar licks and heartfelt vocals made him the idol of generations of musicians and fans while earning him the nickname King of the Blues, died Thursday, May 14, at home in Las Vegas. He was 89. less

FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2007 file photo, B.B. King performs at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center, in Salisbury, Md. The body of blues legend B.B. King will be flown on Wednesday, May 20, 2015, to Memphis, ... more

Photo: (Matthew S. Gunby/The Daily Times Via AP) NO SALES

B.B. King to be laid to rest in Mississippi Delta

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JACKSON, Miss. >> The body of blues legend B.B. King will return next week to the Mississippi Delta where his life and career began.

His body will be flown on Wednesday to Memphis, Tenn., the place where a young King was nicknamed the Beale Street Blues Boy. It is expected to arrive at the airport at about noon, and will be driven in a procession to Handy Park on Beale Street, where a tribute will be held that day.

After that, King’s body will be driven to Indianola, Miss., which King considered his hometown.

A public viewing will be from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. May 29 at the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, and the funeral will be at 11 a.m. May 30 at the nearby Bell Grove Missionary Baptist Church, the museum announced Wednesday. The 15-time Grammy winner will be buried later that day in a private ceremony at the museum, which King helped develop.

“From a practical standpoint, we feel comfortable knowing his final resting place will receive perpetual care at the museum,” the facility’s director, Dion Brown, said in a written statement Wednesday.

In Las Vegas, where King died May 14 at age 89, a public viewing will be held 3-7 p.m. Friday at Palm Mortuary West. Visitors will be able pass King’s open casket, but there won’t be seating or a memorial service during the viewing, mortuary manager Matthew Phillips said. A private service for relatives will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the larger downtown Palm Mortuary chapel

The famed guitarist and singer was married twice and had 15 natural and adopted children.

He was born Riley B. King on Sept. 16, 1925, to sharecropper parents in Berclair, Mississippi, near the tiny town of Itta Bena. His parents divorced when he was young. His mother died a few years later, and then his grandmother died, leaving him living alone in a cabin and sharecropping an acre of cotton when he was 14.

After living in several small communities in Mississippi, he moved to Indianola, where he first gained attention for his musical talents.

He moved to Memphis when he was in his 20s, and that’s where a radio station manager dubbed him the Beale Street Blues Boy. That was shortened to B.B., and the nickname stuck. King went on to international fame playing electric blues guitar that influenced generations of blues and rock musicians.